SILVER SURFERS
An online community is a community that exists online rather than in the phsical world and helps to fulfill an ongoing need in a persons life. The internet can assist people to become part of a community as it erases boundaries created by time and distance making it easier for people to make and maintain connections. (Kim 2000).
This helps to counteract against occupational deprivation. Occupational deprivation occurs when a person is unable to participate in occupations of choice due to factors that are beyond their control. These factors may be social, economic, enviromental, historic, cultural or political. (Christiansen & Townsend 2010). By accessing a meaningful online community of choice it is enabling the person to participate (in some way) in an occupation that they find meaningful to them. The online community is anonomous so there is no need for concern regarding who you are, what you believe or your financial status. You can choose how much information to wish to share, how much information you want to use and how long you want to be a part of it.
There are many online communities in cyberspace that delve into a plethora of different interest groups.
Based on a previous fieldwork placement in Elderly Rehabilitation I decided to look into elderly online communities. Some of these sites assist people with occupational transition.
Occupational transition is defined as a major change in the repertoire of a person in which several occupations change, disappear and/or are replaced with others. (Christiansen & Townsend 2010). There are many transitions that occur through a persons life. One of these is the transition from employed to retired. This can affect a persons whole occupational pattern, where after a lifetime of hardwork every day, a person suddenly has all this extra time on their hands and freedom. People who had difficulty adjusting to retirement had a common reason; they lacked participating in occupations that they found truly engaging. (Christiansen & Townsend 2010). Many of the websites I found had discussions on a variety of topics, blog pages where you could read about other peoples experiences of senior life, information pages on health issues, chat rooms. By accessing these different informative sources it must help in some regard to assisting people in identifying occupations that they find personally satisfying.
It was surprising to find a lack of good online communities for the over 50's that were New Zealand based, so aside from the Age Concern link my other links are either American, Canadian or Australian.
There are many online communities in cyberspace that delve into a plethora of different interest groups.
Based on a previous fieldwork placement in Elderly Rehabilitation I decided to look into elderly online communities. Some of these sites assist people with occupational transition.
Occupational transition is defined as a major change in the repertoire of a person in which several occupations change, disappear and/or are replaced with others. (Christiansen & Townsend 2010). There are many transitions that occur through a persons life. One of these is the transition from employed to retired. This can affect a persons whole occupational pattern, where after a lifetime of hardwork every day, a person suddenly has all this extra time on their hands and freedom. People who had difficulty adjusting to retirement had a common reason; they lacked participating in occupations that they found truly engaging. (Christiansen & Townsend 2010). Many of the websites I found had discussions on a variety of topics, blog pages where you could read about other peoples experiences of senior life, information pages on health issues, chat rooms. By accessing these different informative sources it must help in some regard to assisting people in identifying occupations that they find personally satisfying.
It was surprising to find a lack of good online communities for the over 50's that were New Zealand based, so aside from the Age Concern link my other links are either American, Canadian or Australian.
http://www.senior.com/
Senior.com provides its website visitors with information that is useful for life, news and articles on recent topics, information on money, health, housing, food, relationships, travel, living. Participants can contribute in the chat rooms, forums, blogs. These have to be signed into before you can participate.
http://www.senioryears.com/
A Canadian website that is designed for Canadians over 50. It is a good site as it offers games and jokes provides information, articles, news and Canadian site links available for seniors. In addition, it provides a place for seniors to gather and trade information through email pals and senior listings, senior talent page and articles. Although it is designed for Canadian over 50's, it might offer some senior inspiration for people in other parts of the world.
Participants can contribute in the chat rooms, discussion forums, "your opinion" section, column ideas where you can suggest topics that you would like to read about. This site is good as it is quite interactive, invites contributions and it provides alot of information.
http://greypath.com/
Greypath is a site designed to "empower seniors and enrich the quality of our lives."
It provides links to other useful websites, chat rooms, email pals, forums, competitions and computer help.
Paticipants can contribute in the forums ( health or general forums), competitions, top tips section, chat rooms or the online shop.
http://www.ageconcern.org.nz/acnz
This New Zealand based website works to serve the needs of older people and cover issues relevant to older people and aging. Health, money, happiness, safety, my home, out and about, and common questions.
The New Zealand Age Concern website isnt an internet community as such as it is not very interactive, but it does have links to take you to their Facebook webpage.
The website seems quite bland, seems to just provide information as it lacks an interactive element. (Apart from its Facebook page).
Due to the anonymity of the internet it does pose some potential ethical issues as a lack of identity can cause a lack of accountability if anything does go wrong as no one knows who anyone is for definite. People could lie and make up ficticious information and suck other users in, hack into their computers and steal their identities or their money. Computer viruses could get spread and ruin computers, photos could get downloaded for dodgy purposes or used for financial gain. Some people might access a certain community online and bully, harass or cyberstalk the other people that are using it.
In a traditional geographical community you learn things that you wouldn't neccessarily learn from an online community, such as tolerance, patience, respect, courtesey, how to relate to people in a human capacity.
Online, much of that is removed as you are anonymous so you dont have to always uphold these things if you dont feel like it and you can be as rude or reclusive as you like as there is no accountability. It lacks that personal human interaction.
In a traditional community you can be judged for the silliest things such as what car you drive, or what clothes you wear, what accent you have or what job you hold. Online communities dont have the same predjuices as a real community, although there can be bullying in an online community, often you can block the bully or get them removed. Much easier.
There are pros and cons for both types of communities. Its just down to the individual to decide the what they find more meaningful and beneficial to them.
REFERENCES:
Christiansen, C. H. & Townsend, E. A. (2010). Introduction to occupation. The art of science and living. New Jersey, United States of America. Pearson Education.
Occupational Disruption References: A. J. Kim. (2000). Community building on the web. United State of America. Peachpit Press.
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